Moving to Australia // Planning the move

We are moving to Australia! After 9 years of living in the UK, Tristan and I have decided to pack our bags and leave Manchester. We will be moving at the end of October this year and as we want our move to go as smoothly as possible, we have lots of things to sort out!

Since I became pregnant with Saskia, we talked a lot more about moving to Australia. Tristan and I have no family here in the UK and we wanted Saskia to be closer to her relatives. On the 10th of February we finally lodged our Partner Visa 309/100 application. We were told it could take up to 19 months to receive a response. As we were patiently waiting, on the 11th of June after 4 months I received my grant letter! :)

So here is how things have been going so far.

• After I received my visa, we shared the news with our friends and family. There are definitely mixed feelings from my side of the family - I am moving even further away from Estonia but they have always known about our plans and understand our decision, supporting us 100%.
• We told work. My notice period at work is one month but I thought it would be fair to share the news early. I will quit my job two weeks before our flight, so that gives us time to sort out the last bits and run any final errands. Tristan's notice period is 3 months, so he basically had to tell his work straight away anyway. He will be working until the very last day so we decided that when we land in Brisbane, we will be taking some time off to properly settle in. This could change of course, it all depends on how quickly we can find new jobs!
• We applied for Saskia's Australian citizenship and passport. This has been an ongoing process from last year. We wanted to get all of it sorted before we moved to Australia. We applied for Saskia's citizenship first as of course it is required for a passport application. We also needed to find a guarantor/referee which delayed the whole procedure a bit. Tristan had to go to London twice and these things need planning in advance (booking an appointment with the embassy, arranging a day off from work). If anyone has ever applied for their kids passport born overseas, they know what I am talking about!

• We bought plane tickets! Yay! This made moving even more real. We really wanted to have the most comfortable trip, especially when flying with a 1.5 year old toddler for 26 hours but paying £6000-£7000 (for all three of us) for a one way flight to Brisbane in Business Class seemed a bit ridiculous. We found the best deals with Singapore Airlines and settled with Premium Economy, which cost us half of that amount. It's nothing fancy but I am feeling more relaxed knowing we won't be stuck between other people in the middle of the plane.

• We bought some moving boxes. We decided there is no point waiting and want to start packing and shipping stuff over to Australia as soon as possible. We won't be taking any furniture with us - only things that have sentimental value. These are mostly presents, Saskia's toys, things neither of us really want to give up. We are hoping 5 medium size boxes will be enough!
• We got rid of one piece of furniture already. Manchester City Council has an amazing service where you can get rid of 3 large unwanted items a year for free. They just come and collect it on their normal bin day. As it was just a cheap IKEA shelving unit/display cabinet we thought there was no point in selling it.
• Applying for a Blue Card. As we will be staying with our friends who run a home daycare, it's required that people who work/are around children have a Blue Card. Even if we are not in contact with those children, we still need Blue Card to live at their house. It was surprisingly easy to apply for, we just needed to fill out some forms and get it verified by a JP/judge/police officer.
• We booked a hotel next to the airport. We thought it was a good idea to stay in a hotel for two days before our flight. As our flight is on Sunday morning, we still probably need to get rid of some last bits of furniture. This also gives us a bit of breathing room before our big move.

Wow, it has only been two weeks but I feel like we are making so much progress. I will definitely write another update in a month and for any of you who are interested in our partner visa 309/100 application, stay tuned for the next blog post!